Opinion: The futility of fixing Plateau APC in Nasarawa State
By Mangna Yusuf Wamyil
The numerous reasons behind APC’s loss in Plateau State during the last general elections are well known.
Perhaps, its most perplexing problem, which lingers is its perceived estrangement from the masses of Plateau’s indigenous peoples.
Whether this is true or an exaggeration, the APC on the Plateau has continued to journey on what looks like the road to perdition by its inability to homogenize its platform to recon with the times.
Apart from the obvious internal bickering among its members, the APC has been plagued by an identity crisis.
The impression that the party is alienated from the Plateau and Middlebelt struggles still taints its image.
It was a major issue in the last election, and from the look of things, it might persist to the next.
The party’s recent decision to hold its reconciliation meeting outside the state, at the Nasarawa State Government House Lafia, was not a good look for them.
It was a misstep that might haunt them in the future.
What is wrong with reconciling at home where they supposedly wronged one another?
Were their differences so irreconcilable that they required a third party to mediate between them?
What is the use of a symbolic venue like the Forgiveness Garden, which they established as a place of reconciliation when they held sway in the state?
Couldn’t they access it or any other venue within the state?
Was the cost of hosting the meeting so high that they had to depend on the Nasarawa State government?
No matter what the party has presumably gained from meeting in Lafia, they may not resonate with the ordinary people at home.
They are foreign remedies to a local problem.
It appears the APC in Plateau State lacks a sense of history.
Its recent past shows a party largely viewed as disconnected from the Plateau and Middlebelt struggles.
Their members may argue that those perceptions are contrived and the product of propaganda.
However, the reality is that most people believe them to be true. A significant proportion does.
Imagine what the news of a reconciliation meeting in Nasarawa State has done to such notions.
They may have rather been bolstered than dispelled, resulting in a likely outcome that dismisses the APC as a stranger to Plateau affairs.
Recovering from such a precarious position is herculean.
Added to the advantages of PDP’s incumbency and APC’s penchant for self-sabotage, 2027 may be as good as over in the Home of Peace and Tourism.
